Deep Time Walk CIC, a social enterprise based in the UK, are pleased to announce a significant new update of the Deep Time Walk app. Available now for iOS and Android, the new update focuses on providing a more contemplative walking experience, introducing several innovative features such as a Gaiaphonic Audio mode, Clock-time Remaining Indicator, swipe and slide UI gestures and the integration of ‘What’s Next’ portal for positive action (with organisations such as Earth Charter, 350.org and Transition Towns).

Product Director, Robert Woodford states: “Our significant new update to the Deep Time Walk app focuses on providing the walker with a more contemplative walking experience, encouraging the walker to slow down and connect with their local ecology using both their eyes and ears. The narrator for the deep time walk experience has always instructed the walker to store their phone in a pocket at the start of the walk, encouraging the walker to focus their eyes away from the digital screen to the natural landscape around them. In this new update, we are also giving the users the option to channel all the audio narrative to just one ear, enabling the other ear to the present to the ecology of which the walker is embedded.”

Deep Time Walk 1.1 New features

Swipe and Slide gestures: users of the app are now able to swipe through time in 100-million-year time segments, using the central part of the user interface. Users are also able to slide across 4.6bn years of geological time using the top timeline of the user interface, enabling easy movement across different points in geological time.

Clock-time Remaining Indicator: pressing the central MYA Indicator (Millions of Years Ago) will now show the clock-time remaining for the walk, helpful in planning how long the walk will take from the current position.

Gaiaphonic Audio Mode: when using earbuds, this option enables all the dramatised audio narrative to be channeled to just one ear. The other ear is left open to listen to sounds from the local biophony, geophony and anthrophony. This new mode encourages the user to connect and be present to the acoustic ecology of their local environment.

Contemplative pauses: ambient acoustic loops have been introduced when the walker stops, enabling the walker to pause and contemplate what they have just heard in the narrative without interuption.

Slow walking: subtle changes to both the user interface and narrative soundscape encourage a slower pace, stimulating a more contemplative experience for the walker.

What’s Next: at the end of the walk, the user is presented with a ‘What’s Next’ section, encouraging positive action such as signing the Earth Charter, joining 350.org or participating in a local Transition Town initiative.

Streamlined Graphics: the graphical user interface for the app has been streamlined, tidying up the layout with a cleaner design.